Who: Garry Trudeau, David Levinthal, David Stanford, and Owen Powell. Moderated by Roger Rosenblatt What: Politics and Current Events Lecture Series: War in Afghanistan and Iraq Where: The 92nd St. Y When: January 26, 2010 Thumbs: Up, but could have been Upper (more...)

The big news to come out of Meet The Press this week has been author Jon Krakauer's assertion that General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was implicated in the cover-up about the death of Pat Tillman, the football-star-turned-Army Ranger who was killed in Afghanistan in 2004, ostensibly in an enemy attack but later revealed to have been killed by friendly fire. The Tillman story is tragic enough without the added layer of deception: The Bush Administration knew he'd been killed by friendly fire, yet lionized him as a hero falling to the enemy in a PR blitz. The subsequent discovery of that cover-up was a terrible black eye for the last administration — and, it seems, continues to have echoes in this one. (more...)

video Talk about inconvenient timing. Pat Tillman is a spectre that continues to haunt both the Bush administration and the U.S. military. Short recap: Tillman, a former professional football player, famously left a promising career in the NFL shortly after 9/11 to join the army, and was killed while on tour in Afghanistan in 2004. There has been much controversy surrounding his death in the intervening years; initially the military announced Tillman had been killed whilst under attack and he was subsequently awarded a Purple Heart, and the Silver Star and the Bush administration a great PR coup. Later it was divulged that Tillman had actually died in a friendly fire incident and that the army knew this at the time but chose to award Tillman the Purple Heart anyway (cue multiple propaganda accusations). Just days after his death General Stanley McChrystal (yes that same McChrystal) approved a Silver Star citation, which included an account of Tillman's death including the phrase "in the line of devastating enemy fire," the very next day he reportedly sent a memo to senior government members warning that Tillman might actually have been killed by friendly fire. Which brings us to now. (more...)